How come New York state and city have the same name?

Well I wasn't aware of the New Yorkshire thing until I looked it up, but I know a fair bit about colonial governance in British America due to research I did for LTTW. In colonial times the Province of New York was governed from New York City by the Governor (or more usually Lieutenant-Governor, many Governors being absentee), the New York Assembly and the Executive Council. I'm not sure if they had a permanent meeting place, although there seem to be a fair few references to them meeting in Fort Amsterdam (AKA Fort James and a host of other names). It was demolished in 1790 after the American Revolution, which may be why it's not well known.

Thande, I have a long-planned timeline in the works dealing with the same time period. Are there any good resources you can recommend on the issues that came up in your timeline?
 

Flubber

Banned
Thande, I have a long-planned timeline in the works dealing with the same time period. Are there any good resources you can recommend on the issues that came up in your timeline?


While Thande's recollection regarding the capitols of a few eastern seaboard states during the ARW are somewhat correct, there are and were a great many mechanisms involved here. Indianapolis, for example, was actually created to be the capitol of Indiana because none of the existing cities in the pre-statehood territory would allow another to become the capitol.

Let me recommend the various "How The States Got Their Shapes" books. The selection and shuffling of capitol cities is usually mentioned in the chapters dealing with each state.
 

Thande

Donor
Let me recommend the various "How The States Got Their Shapes" books. The selection and shuffling of capitol cities is usually mentioned in the chapters dealing with each state.

I would also recommend Bill Bryson's "Made in America", which while mainly about the history of American English, goes into a great deal of interesting detail about renamings and different practices in the early colonies.
 
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